(S29) Ultimus Week

[StadiumGambler]

Code:

6. Write 800 words or more on something about anything in the league that interests you. It could be related to statistics, a league issue that you take seriously, or a niche part of history that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the above categories. This must be directly related to the league, so don’t wax 800 words about your team’s participation on a Werewolf server or something.

Okay I'm gonna let off some steam on league issues that I am taking seriously.

First of all just like my last year with the Portland Pythons in the DSFL, my Sarasota Sailfish were victimized by some utterly terrible playcalling. The scene for this first one is against the future Ultimus champ New York Silverbacks in Week 9 action. It is overtime in a tied game, 24 to 24, Sarasota have the ball, its 1st and 10 just past midfield into enemy territory. A first down here and Kicker Jacob Small can put through a winner. Chizuru Ichinose runs for 4 yards, fullback San Sternenstaub gets half a yard maybe, and then on 3rd and 5 Sarasota spikes the ball to stop the clock.

With a minute and 27 seconds left in overtime.

I'm not sure if timeouts refill, but even so, they'd have had enough time to get off two plays instead of wasting one with a spike, which is just throwing the game away. Also, if we were so concerned about the clock, why did we call two running plays in a row before the spike? Why not just throw a goddamn sideline pass, bleed the clock down if it misses, and punt, forcing NY to drive in a limited amount of time for the tie at least.

At any rate, the spike gave us 4th and 5, which turned into 4th and inches after New York defensive end Brick Van Sanzo jumped offsides (of course the 5 yards was more like 5.2 so no first down). Then Jacob Small missed a tough kick from 53, and New York covered 50+ yards in 3 plays for the 30 to 24 win.

Then in Week 14, Sarasota faces the Berlin Fire Salamanders. With the game tied 13 to 13 late in the 4th quarter, Sarasota is driving in Berlin territory after a 30 yard reception from Joseph Radetzky. Ichinose runs for 4 yards, Ichinose runs for half a yard or so, and it is 3rd and 5 with a minute and a half left. On third down, Sarasota spikes the ball, and then GOES FOR IT ON 4TH AND 5!

Ichinose gets the ball for a running play again, gets stopped for no gain, and its turnover on downs. Sarasota was on the Berlin 35 and could've tried a 52 yard field goal from Jacob Small to win the game, but did not do that. Instead the game goes to overtime and Berlin eventually wins.

Once again, a common problem the sim exhibits is its inability to manage a game clock. If time is such a concern, why call running plays when the situation calls for passing plays from the 2 minute drill section of the playbook? Why try a 50+ yard field goal in one game, but not the other? Also, there were a couple instances in both games where Sarasota, hoarding timeouts, called timeouts specifically so they could punt the ball to the opposition without the clock running out, instead of just bleeding the game clock down. If I didn't know better, I'd swear Sarasota's coach was trying to throw the games so that the other teams would win. It was ridiculous, and a shame on this sim for allowing this to happen. Sarasota going 11-5 instead of 13-3 might've had a big rippled effect on the season. Maybe they beat Berlin at home in the Conference Finals instead of losing (or get the Yeti, who we beat in the playoffs). Maybe when we make it to the Ultimus, we beat New York again. Instead, its nothing but a heaping helping of second best, and its not like its some issue that can be easily fixed by our strategists in the offseason, because we have such limited control over what we can change to improve team performance.

Another league issue I'm taking seriously is build and attribute relevance. I've been recently informed not to invest in Intelligence as a wideout, and I'm like whaaaaaaat? I feel like Intelligence should be a super important attribute in any sports sim, or its equivalents like Awareness and Decisions. Awareness in Madden CPU vs CPU games is actually an important decider in games, because a player with low awareness might lose understanding of football on a conceptual level and play really badly. Intelligence should be a big impact on performance, and being told to soft-pedal it for a couple other attributes kind of takes you out of the illusion that sim sports is supposed to provide, you know? It would be better for player building if we could meaningfully specialize in ways with tangible upsides and downsides, instead of "raise this this and this, because it's optimal." Just another example of shoddy sim design from Wolverine Studios.

Unfortunately I'm not sure how we address this at all, beyond hoping for our sim overlords to get their collective shit together, but it was a much needed rant that had to be put out there.